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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors said Paul Manafort could go to prison for approximately 19 to 24 years and be required to pay fines and restitution totaling more than $28 million.
In a sentencing memo filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, prosecutors said that under sentencing guidelines Manafort, who was President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, could get a long sentence and heavy fine.
A longtime fixture in Republican politics, Manafort was convicted in August on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failure to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud
“For a decade, Manafort repeatedly violated the law," the sentencing memo says. "Considering only the crimes charged in this district, they make plain that Manafort chose to engage in a sophisticated scheme to hide millions of dollars from United States authorities."
After his income from foreign sources shrank in 2015, the memo said, "he chose to engage in a series of bank frauds in the United States to maintain his extravagant life style, at the expense of various financial institutions. Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him."
Prosecutors continued that "the sentence in this case must take into account the gravity of this conduct, and serve to both specifically deter Manafort and those who would commit a similar series of crimes.”
In addition to a sentence of around 19 to 24 years, guidelines would allow him to be fined in a range of $50,000 to more than $24 million, and required to pay restitution of more than $24 million and forfeit assets in the amount of more than $4 million.
